Systems and methods for presenting supplemental content in augmented reality

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods provided for presenting supplemental content in an augmented reality environment where an object within a field of view of an augmented reality device of a user is identified and processed to detect a reference related to a participant in an event. A user profile or user social network is searched to identify a message from the user about the participant. The message may be combined with the object in the augmented reality field of view.

BACKGROUND

A user can use an augmented reality device to provide an enhanced ormodified version of the user's environment by adding features orinformation in the user's field of view. Existing augmented realityapplications include, for example, games that overlay a user'senvironment, or information services that can obtain information forobjects in a field of view. It would be helpful if such informationcould be tailored to be relevant to the user.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described for presentingsupplemental content in augmented reality. Augmented reality is amodified version of reality that can include enhanced informationoverlaid over views of the real world. In general, augmented realityenvironments can be accessed using dedicated devices such as smartglasses or a headset. Augmented reality environments can also beaccessed using an application on a multi-use portable device, such as asmartphone or tablet. The augmented reality environment may use a camerato obtain a picture of a real-world view and use a computer or aprocessor to analyze the picture and detect objects in the picture whichmay be identified as having some relevance to the viewer or user andproviding information about or interactive options relating to theobject or objects.

In an example, an augmented reality user may use an augmented realitydevice such as smart glasses, a headset, mobile phone, or a smartphoneto view a scene. The augmented reality device (e.g., the smart glassesor smartphone) may capture a picture or video image of the scene andsearch for objects in the image. In some scenarios, a user mayspecifically focus on a particular object in the scene by, for example,pointing the augmented reality device in a direction of the object. Amedia guidance application may analyze one or more objects in the imageto determine whether any of the objects have a connection to the user.For any object determined to have a connection to the user, the mediaguidance application may identify supplemental content that is relatedto the object for the user. In some scenarios, to identify a connectionbetween a user and an object, the media guidance application may searcha user profile, user history, a user's social media, or another sourceof information about the user. The supplemental content that isidentified by the media guidance application may be, for example, amessage related to the object that may be obtained from a social networkor social media, media content related to the object, such as a videoclip, television program, movie, image, book, or other media content.

In an example, a method for presenting supplemental content in augmentedreality may be provided by identifying an object within a field of viewof an augmented reality device of a user. The field of view may be anyenvironment the user wishes to use. For example, the field of view maybe a location where the user is present. For example, the field of viewmay be a room in which the user is present, or a street scene where auser is walking, or a place the user is seeking, but may not be presentin. The field of view could also be an image, such as a billboard,picture, magazine advertisement, etc. The augmented reality device maycapture an image of such field of view. The image may be a video orstill picture that captures the field of view. A media guidanceapplication may process the image to detect an object in the image. Themedia guidance application may detect on the object a reference that maybe related to a participant in an event. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect that there is a sports team logo in an image,such as on a billboard, vehicle, apparel, or another location in theimage, that may be connected to a member of the sports team and thesports team may have a game or another upcoming event scheduled.

The media guidance application may search a profile of the user to finda connection between the user and the participant. For example, themedia guidance application may search a social network for a message bythe user that relates to the participant. In an example, a user may haveposted on Twitter about a participant of a sports team or about the teamor about the sport. If the media guidance application can identify asocial media message by the user relating to the participant or team,the media guidance application may overlay, using the augmented realitydevice, a message about the participant. For example, the media guidanceapplication could overlay a user's social media post about a sportsplayer over an object related to the player in the image as seen in theaugmented reality environment.

The message overlay in the augmented reality environment could be thecontent of the social media message by the user relating to theparticipant so that the message can be combined in the augmented realityimage with the reference detected on the object. In some scenarios, themessage may be the same as was used in the social media post. In otherscenarios, the message may be shortened or abbreviated or otherwisebased on the social media post message. In some examples, the locationof the overlaid message may be on or near the object location in thefield of view of the augmented reality device.

In another example, a method for presenting supplemental content inaugmented reality is provided in which an augmented reality device of auser may be positioned over an object within a field of view of theaugmented reality device. For example, a user may look at a particularfield of view with smart glasses to position the view over an object. Inanother example, the user may place a portable device having augmentedreality functionality over an object within a field of view. Forexample, the user may point a smartphone camera generally in a directionof an object. The user could also zoom in on the object using thesmartphone camera.

A media guidance application may identify the object in the field ofview of the augmented reality device of the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect some object that is the focus of acamera of the smartphone. In some examples, the object may be in themiddle of the screen. In another example, the object may be an objectthat is stored in a user profile as being associated in some way withthe user.

The media guidance application may capture an image of the object. Theimage may be captured in the augmented reality device by, for example,taking a photograph or screenshot. The image may also be captured usingcamera circuitry and store pixels representing the object. The mediaguidance application may then search a database to identify content thatmatches at least a portion of the image of the object. For example, themedia guidance application may use image search tools to search one ormore image databases to find a match of a portion of the object image.

Searching a database to identify suitable content may also includesearching a database that includes entries that associate images withcontent. Such a database may be predefined to include entries that arerelated to a user and which include interesting supplemental contentthat may arise from time to time. Setting up such a database can improvesearch results and reduce the time to identify suitable supplementalcontent for a user. Such a database could be searched in addition tosearching a general media database which may have more content items,but which are not defined with associated images. The database may havestored a plurality of entries that associate images with content. Theimages may be analyzed by control circuitry of a media guidanceapplication to detect distinct items in the captured image of theobject. The distinct items may be, for example, logos, faces, brandnames, or other objects and items. The distinct items may be matchedwith associated content, and an entry associating the distinct items andthe content may be stored in the database. The entries may be searchedfor the items or objects and a matching entry may be identified thatsubstantially corresponds to one of the distinct items. When the mediaguidance application makes such a match, content in the entry that isassociated with the distinct item, which is part of the captured imageof the object and thus is also related to the object image, may beretrieved by the media guidance application and supplied to theaugmented reality environment for the user.

If content matching the object image, or a portion of the image, isfound in a media database, the media guidance application may retrievemetadata for the matching content. The metadata may be analyzed and usedto detect information or a reference related to a participant in anevent. For example, the media guidance application may find a matchingsports team logo image and the associated metadata may include a sportsteam player name or names. The media guidance application may thensearch a list of messages previously transmitted by the user to a socialnetwork to identify a message that includes content matching theparticipant. For example, the media guidance application may search auser's social media posts for messages related to a player on a sportsteam having a matching logo.

The media guidance application may analyze the field of view in theaugmented reality device to find placement or location of the objectsand references. In particular, the media guidance application mayidentify a location on the object of the reference related to theparticipant. In the sports team logo example, the media guidanceapplication may identify the region of the object in the field viewhaving the logo. The media guidance application may determine whichregion of the object in the field of view includes the portion of theimage that matches the matching content. In another example, a mediaguidance application may identify a player's name on a jersey orbillboard and determine the region of the object in the field of viewincluding the name.

The identified location may then be used by the media guidanceapplication to position a message in the augmented reality device. Forexample, the media guidance application may cause the augmented realitydevice to overlay a message in the field of view for the user in theobject location. The content of the message may be combined with thereference that was detected on the object. In an example, a user mayhave previously posted to a social network about a player on a sportsteam, and such social media message may be superimposed in the augmentedreality field of view over the reference object.

In an illustrative example, the image in the field of view may be sportsrelated. An example of content, objects or items in the view may be asports logo. A search for related supplemental content may includedetecting the sports logo and determining the name of the sports teamassociated with the sports logo, e.g., by way of searching for an entryin a database for an associated team name and logo, or by using metadatafor the logo.

In another example, an event may be a sporting event. If the mediaguidance application determines that the event is a sporting event, themedia guidance application may identify competitors participating in thesporting event. The competitors may be identified by searching a mediadatabase for information or metadata about the event. The media guidanceapplication may also determine a team that is featured in the sportingevent in the same manner. The competitor information may be used todetermine a second team that is participating in the sporting event. Forexample, the competitor information may include metadata for each playerthat includes team information. If a second team is identified, themedia guidance application may select a message to include in theaugmented reality view that is related to the first team, any of thecompetitors, or the second team.

In another example, an event may have an associated time. For example, asporting event may be scheduled at a particular time or in a particularorder following another event. The time for the event may be identifiedby the media guidance application. A message that is selected by themedia guidance application to include in the augmented reality view maybe one that was transmitted to the user's social network within athreshold of time that is relevant or suitable for the event time. Forexample, a message about a sports team that is a year old may not berelevant for a game scheduled in the near future. Instead, a more recentmessage about the sports team may be selected by the media guidanceapplication.

After a message has been combined with a reference in an object in afield of view for an augmented reality device, the user may wish tocapture an image of the view. The media guidance application may store apicture that represents the view through the augmented reality device ofthe given message combined with the reference detected on the object forthe user. The picture may be presented to the user in a displaygenerated by the media guidance application along with an option for theuser to transmit the picture to a social network.

In another illustrative example, a user may view with an augmentedreality device another person wearing clothing that has a connection toa sports team. For example, the second person's clothing may include agraphic logo or another representation of a sports team. If such animage were in the augmented reality field of view and thus captured bythe media guidance application, a resulting combination message andobject view generated by the media guidance application for the usercould also be transmitted to the second person. For example, the mediaguidance application could cause the message combined with the image tobe sent to the second user's computer or smartphone, or an augmentedreality device.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a user of an augmented realitydevice in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of an augmented reality display inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a user's social media history inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 4-7 show illustrative examples of an augmented reality display inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 8-9 show other illustrative examples of display screens generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for adding a messageto an object in an augmented reality view in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of another illustrative process for adding amessage to an object in an augmented reality view in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for generating asocial media image for a user in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for selecting amessage to add to an object in an augmented reality view in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein for enhancing auser's augmented reality experience. In particular, systems and methodsare presented herein for adding a message, such as a message from auser's social network, to an object in a field of view in an augmentedreality device.

Augmented reality devices, such as an augmented reality headset or smartglasses, or a portable device with an augmented reality application,such as a mobile phone, smartphone or tablet, may be used to present anaugmented reality view. The view may be presented with the augmentedreality device or application so that the user can see a particular viewwith additional information about the view. For example, an augmentedreality environment at a makeup counter may show a user with varioustypes of applied makeup. In another example, augmented reality can beused at home to show how furniture may fit in a room. In anotherexample, augmented reality devices can be used while grocery shopping todo price and nutritional comparisons. While these uses are very helpfulto the user, the user may wish to also have information tailored forthem to be added in the augmented reality.

One way this can be accomplished is by using a media guidanceapplication to analyze a view in the augmented reality environment todetect an object in the view. The object can be analyzed to determine areference in the object that may have an associated participant orevent. A media guidance application may search a user's social networkto identify content that relates to the object, participant or event.For example, the media guidance application may search for a post by theuser on social media that names or depicts the object, participant orevent. If such a message is identified by the media guidanceapplication, the media guidance application may add that message, orsome version of the message, to the augmented reality view of theobject. For example, the media guidance application may generate anoverlay of the message to be displayed over the image in the augmentedreality environment, in particular over or near the related object. Thiscan be helpful for a user because the message is one that was originallyprovided by the user in another context and is now being added to theuser's augmented reality view.

Turning to FIG. 1 which depicts a street scene 100 including a user 110who is out for a walk on the street wearing an augmented reality headset120 so that they can see their environment with additional informationsupplied by the augmented reality device. In an example, a user may walkaround with an augmented reality device to see directions or mapinformation while walking; the augmented reality device 120 may alsocapture images from the user's current environment. For example, theaugmented reality device 120 may capture a person 150 on the sidewalkwho is wearing a T-shirt with a New England Patriots logo.

An augmented reality device may also be a smartphone which may capture astreet view such as that shown in FIG. 2 in view 200, which includes aperson 210 wearing a T-shirt with a New England Patriots logo. Either ofthe augmented reality environments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may besuitable for a user to access the enhanced augmented reality featuresdescribed herein. The views seen in the augmented reality environmentsmay be captured, as, for example, images, by a media guidanceapplication using camera circuitry in the augmented reality device. Theuser may focus on a particular aspect of the view, which may inform themedia guidance application of an item of interest in the view.Alternatively, the media guidance application may parse the image toidentify objects using object recognition techniques. The media guidanceapplication may also call on outside databases and information, as wellas user information, to provide helpful information to include in theaugmented reality view.

Turning to FIG. 3, the media guidance application may, for example,search a user's social network to find information about the user thatmay be interesting to see in an augmented reality environment. As shownin FIG. 3, a user may have a record 300 of comments or posts on a socialnetwork that includes date information and messages, e.g., 302 and 310,and 305 and 315, respectively. As can be seen by the record 300, theuser may have some interest in football. A media guidance applicationmay parse such comments and determine that interest. In addition, themedia guidance application may search a sports schedule or sports mediadatabase for metadata that may specify the sporting event referenced,for example, at messages 305 and 315.

Using the social network information about the user from the record 300,a media guidance application may find a message that is related to areference or object in the view captured by the augmented realitydevice, e.g., the view 200 (FIG. 2). For example, the media guidanceapplication may identify the person 210 (FIG. 2) and their T-shirt logoand detect that the logo is related to the New England Patriots andfootball. The media guidance application may parse the user's socialmedia record 300 and detect messages about football. Such messages couldbe included in the augmented reality view. For example, message 305 maybe added to the augmented reality view 200 (FIG. 2) as shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 depicts an augmented reality view 400 that a user may see usingan augmented reality device. In the view 400, a media guidanceapplication has captured an object in the view 400: pedestrian 405wearing a T-shirt with a New England Patriots logo. The media guidanceapplication may search the user's social media network information tofind suitable messages to include in the view. As shown in FIG. 4, amessage 410 has been added to the view 400 that was taken from theuser's social media record (e.g., message 305 (FIG. 3)). The messageselected to be included in the augmented reality view 400 can be basedon various factors, for example, time, relevance, user interest, oranother basis. The message 410 selected for view 400 may be deemedrelevant due, for example, to timeliness. Since the message 410 is themost recent in time message that the user has posted (see, e.g., record300 (FIG. 3), the media guidance application may determine that it issuitable to include in the view 400.

In another example, a message may be selected to be added to anaugmented reality view by the media guidance application based on thesocial network record and additional information. As shown in FIG. 5, anaugmented reality view 500 may include a person 505 wearing a T-shirtwith a New England Patriots logo. The user may focus on the T-shirt, orthe media guidance application may capture the logo as an interestingobject in the image. The media guidance application may search forsuitable content to include in the augmented reality view 500. In asearch of the user's social network record (e.g., record 300 (FIG. 3),the media guidance application may detect an interest in football.Further, the media guidance application may select the most recent post,e.g., message 305 (FIG. 3), and determine whether there are anyassociated events for the object that are related to the message. Forexample, the media guidance application may search a media database or asports database to identify a sporting event related to the sport orteam that is around the time of the post. Thus, for the message 305(FIG. 3), the media guidance application may search for football eventsaround the date of the message. In addition, the media guidanceapplication may search for football events for the team associated withthe logo or reference object from the augmented reality view. A searchof a sports database may show games for the New England Patriots afterNovember 21, e.g., the Dolphins vs. Patriots game on Nov. 26, 2017 asshown in message 510.

In another example, the media guidance application may obtaininformation about a reference object in an augmented reality view andselect a message that provides a link to access content related to thereference object that may also be based on a user's history, e.g., apreference profile or social network. As shown in FIG. 6, an augmentedreality view 600 may include a person 605 wearing a T-shirt with a logofor the New England Patriots football team. A media guidance applicationmay detect the logo as a reference object in an image of the view 600and search for a suitable message to overlay in the view 600 that isrelevant to the object. The media guidance application may identify thelogo, using image analysis tools, as being for the New England Patriots.The media guidance application may search a sports database for metadataabout the team. The media guidance application may also search theuser's history, e.g., social network record 300 (FIG. 3), for messagesthat may be relevant to the team or some metadata identified in thesearch of the sports database. The media guidance application maydetermine that the team—the New England Patriots—was a participant inthe Super Bowl referenced in message 315 (FIG. 3). Thus, the mediaguidance application may select a clip related to the team playing inthe Super Bowl to offer in a link that is overlaid in the view 600.

In another example, the media guidance application may select areference object identified in an augmented reality view for sharing.The reference object may be shared on social media for the user, orshared with another person. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, anaugmented reality view 700 may include a person 705 wearing a NewEngland Patriots T-shirt and the media guidance application may detectthe T-shirt as a reference object in the view. The detection of theT-shirt and its logo may be based on image analysis and recognition. Thelogo may be, for example, stored in a user preference profile based on auser's viewing history or social network history. The media guidanceapplication may capture the reference object, e.g., the T-shirt andlogo, and provide a message 720 in the augmented reality view 700including the reference object and a comment. The comment “Can't waitfor turkey coma and football,” may be obtained by the media guidanceapplication using, for example, the user's social network history. Forexample, the comment may be based on a recent post 305 (FIG. 3) that isdeemed by the media guidance application to be timely as well as relatedto the sport associated with the logo. The message 720 may also includea selectable option 730 for the user to post the image to a socialnetwork, or send it to a recipient, or other manner of sharing theimage. In some examples, the recipient may be identified in the message720 and option 730 as the person 705 who may be identified byfacial/image recognition techniques by the media guidance application,which may have access to a user's contacts and image history.

Although the examples described with reference to FIGS. 1-7 haveinvolved only sporting events, other types of image objects could alsobe used in the same manner. For example, faces, brand names, flags,television shows, landmarks, or other objects may be identified usingimage recognition techniques, and searches of databases for metadataassociated with the images may be performed to find events related tosuch items. For example, a billboard advertisement showing Lady Gagacould be recognized and a database search for her name could includeinformation about her appearance in the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show,which could also be added in the augmented reality views and be relatedto a user's comment 315 (FIG. 3) about watching the Super Bowl. Inanother example, the billboard showing Lady Gaga could result in amessage about her upcoming concert.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smartphone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (e.g., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 8-9 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 8-9 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 8-9 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 8 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 800arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 800 may include grid 802 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 804, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 806, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 802 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 808, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 810. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 810 may be provided inprogram information region 812. Region 812 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 802 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 814, recorded content listing 816, andInternet content listing 818. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 800 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings814, 816, and 818 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 802 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 802. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 820. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 820.)

Display 800 may also include video region 822, and options region 826.Video region 822 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 822 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 802. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 826 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 826 may be part of display 800 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 826 may concern features related to program listings in grid 802or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 11. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 9. Video mosaic display 900 includes selectable options 902 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 900, television listings option 904 isselected, thus providing listings 906, 908, 910, and 912 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 900 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 908 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 914 and text portion 916.Media portion 914 and/or text portion 916 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 914 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 900 are of different sizes (e.g., listing 906 islarger than listings 908, 910, and 912), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 10 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 1000. More specific implementationsof user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.11. User equipment device 1000 may receive content and data viainput/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 1002. I/O path 1002 may providecontent (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internetcontent, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 1004,which includes processing circuitry 1006 and storage 1008. Controlcircuitry 1004 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, andother suitable data using I/O path 1002. I/O path 1002 may connectcontrol circuitry 1004 (and specifically processing circuitry 1006) toone or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may beprovided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown asa single path in FIG. 10 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 1004 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 1006. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 1004 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (e.g.,storage 1008). Specifically, control circuitry 1004 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 1004 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 1004 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 1004 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 11). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 1008 thatis part of control circuitry 1004. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 1008 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 11, may be used to supplementstorage 1008 or instead of storage 1008.

Control circuitry 1004 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 1004 may also include scaler circuitry forupconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output formatof the user equipment 1000. Circuitry 1004 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning andencoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. Thecircuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, andanalog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running onone or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tunersmay be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch andrecord functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tunerrecording, etc.). If storage 1008 is provided as a separate device fromuser equipment 1000, the tuning and encoding circuitry (includingmultiple tuners) may be associated with storage 1008.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 1004 using user inputinterface 1010. User input interface 1010 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 1012 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1000. For example, display 1012 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface1010 may be integrated with or combined with display 1012. Display 1012may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepoly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 1012 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 1012 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 1012.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry1004. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 1004.Speakers 1014 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1000 or may be stand-alone units. The audio componentof videos and other content displayed on display 1012 may be playedthrough speakers 1014. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributedto a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio viaspeakers 1014.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 1000. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage1008), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 1004 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 1008 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 1004 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 1010. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 1010 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 1000 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 1000. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 1004 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 1004) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 1000. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 1000.Equipment device 1000 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 1010 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 1000 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 1010.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 1000 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 1004). In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 1004 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 1004. Forexample, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In someembodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series ofJAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine orother suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 1004. In some ofsuch embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 1000 of FIG. 10 can be implemented in system 1100of FIG. 11 as user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment1104, wireless user communications device 1106, or any other type ofuser equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portablegaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 10 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, or awireless user communications device 1106. For example, user televisionequipment 1102 may, like some user computer equipment 1104, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 1104 may, like some television equipment 1102,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 1104, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 1106.

In system 1100, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 11 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, wireless usercommunications device 1106) may be referred to as a “second screendevice.” For example, a second screen device may supplement contentpresented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on thesecond screen device may be any suitable content that supplements thecontent presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the secondscreen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and displaypreferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screendevice is configured for interacting with other second screen devices orfor interacting with a social network. The second screen device can belocated in the same room as the first device, a different room from thefirst device but in the same house or building, or in a differentbuilding from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network1114. Namely, user television equipment 1102, user computer equipment1104, and wireless user communications device 1106 are coupled tocommunications network 1114 via communications paths 1108, 1110, and1112, respectively. Communications network 1114 may be one or morenetworks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice ordata network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switchedtelephone network, or other types of communications network orcombinations of communications networks. Paths 1108, 1110, and 1112 mayseparately or together include one or more communications paths, suchas, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path thatsupports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections(e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitablewired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path1112 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 11 it is a wireless path and paths 1108 and1110 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (althoughthese paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with theuser equipment devices may be provided by one or more of thesecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 11 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 1108, 1110, and 1112, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 1114.

System 1100 includes content source 1116 and media guidance data source1118 coupled to communications network 1114 via communication paths 1120and 1122, respectively. Paths 1120 and 1122 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 1108, 1110,and 1112. Communications with the content source 1116 and media guidancedata source 1118 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 11 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 1116 and media guidance data source 1118, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 11 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 1116 and media guidance data source 1118 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 1116 and 1118with user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and 1106 are shown as throughcommunications network 1114, in some embodiments, sources 1116 and 1118may communicate directly with user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and1106 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described abovein connection with paths 1108, 1110, and 1112.

Content source 1116 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademarkowned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademarkowned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademarkowned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 1116 may be theoriginator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcastprovider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., anon-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Content source 1116 may include cablesources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 1116 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 1118 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 1118may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 1118 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 1118 mayprovide user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and 1106 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 1008, andexecuted by control circuitry 1004 of a user equipment device 1000. Insome embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 1004 of user equipment device1000 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 1118) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 1118), the media guidanceapplication may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidanceapplication displays and transmit the generated displays to the userequipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 1118 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices1102, 1104, and 1106 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 1100 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 11.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 1114.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 1116 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 1102 and user computer equipment 1104may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 1106 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 1114. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 1116 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 1118. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 1102, user computer equipment 1104, andwireless user communications device 1106. For example, the other userequipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or astreamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operatein a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 1104 or wireless usercommunications device 1106 having content capture feature.Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a userequipment device, such as user computer equipment 1104. The userequipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloudusing a data transmission service on communications network 1114. Insome embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource,and other user equipment devices can access the content directly fromthe user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, e.g., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 10.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1200 foradding information to an augmented reality view in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1200 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example, process 1200 may be executedby control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) to present added information in anaugmented reality environment. In addition, one or more steps of process1200 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative process 1200 for providing informationin an augmented reality view. At step 1210, control circuitry 1004 for amedia guidance application may identify an object within a field of viewof an augmented reality device. For example, a user using an augmentedreality device may have a certain field of view (e.g., views 200, 400,500, 600 or 700) including various objects. The media guidanceapplication may capture an image in the view using camera circuitry. Themedia guidance application may also determine whether the user isfocusing in the view on a particular object or direction.

At step 1220, control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance applicationmay process an image of the object. The media guidance application mayuse camera circuitry to capture and process the image with controlcircuitry 1004 to detect, on the object, a reference related to aparticipant in an event. The media guidance application may use imageanalysis tools to analyze the image using control circuitry 1004 toidentify the object. The media guidance application may then search amedia or other database to obtain additional information about theobject to determine the reference, participant and event associated withthe object.

At step 1230, control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance applicationmay search a profile of the user to find content that may be relevant tothe object. In particular, control circuitry 1004 for a media guidanceapplication may search the user profile to identify a message about theparticipant that was previously transmitted to a social network by theuser. Thus, the media guidance application may use participant or eventinformation associated with the object to find a message from the user'ssocial network that is relevant to the object in the augmented realityview. For example, the media guidance application may search the user'ssocial network record 300 (FIG. 3) to identify a message that is relatedto a participant in the object. Building on the examples providedearlier, the media guidance application may detect a sports team logo inan augmented reality device display and determine a participant—e.g.,the team, or players on the team associated with the logo, the sport, orother stakeholder metadata for the logo. The media guidance applicationmay then search the user's history to find related content, e.g., socialnetwork comments, media associated with the user history, etc.

At step 1240 the control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance applicationmay overlay in a display on the augmented reality device a messageidentified in the user's history. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use a comment from a user's social network history thatis related to the object reference to overlay in the augmented realityview. The control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance application maycause the overlay to be generated at an approximate location of theobject, or other suitable location so that the user can see theconnection between the message and the object. The message overlay maybe a combination of the content of a message from a user's socialnetwork history and the reference object. Thus, in an example, a socialnetwork message about football may be displayed in an augmented realityview as an overlay of the sports logo reference object in the augmentedreality view.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 12 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 12 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1300 foradding information to an augmented reality view in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1300 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example, process 1300 may be executedby control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) to present added information in anaugmented reality environment. In addition, one or more steps of process1300 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 13 is an illustrative flowchart depicting a process 1300 that maybe followed to provide information in an augmented reality view thatincludes a message with a reference object in the view. At step 1310control circuitry 1004 for a media guidance application may be used toposition an augmented reality device of a first user over an objectwithin a field of view of the augmented reality device. The mediaguidance application may focus a view of a display in an augmentedreality device over an object in the view. For example, in the view 200shown in FIG. 2, the media guidance application may focus on one or moreobjects in the view 200. For example, the media guidance application mayfocus on an advertisement in a billboard, a nearby store, or one of thepersons in the view 200, such as the person 210. Focusing on the objectin the view may be achieved by, for example, detecting a direction ororientation of the augmented reality device, a user history of objectinterest, a user's calendar to determine temporal foci, or anotherbasis. In another example, the object focus may be based on a user'saction within the augmented reality environment.

At step 1315, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may identify the object within the field of view of theaugmented reality device of the first user. The object may be identifiedby the control circuitry 1004 by narrowing in the field of view focusfrom step 1310. The object may be identified using object recognitiontools and techniques.

When the object has been identified, the control circuitry 1004 for themedia guidance application, at step 1320, may capture an image of theobject. The image may be captured by the control circuitry 1004 for themedia guidance application using camera circuitry and using a photographor video image capture that can include capturing the image using pixelsor another image component.

At step 1325, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may search a database to identify content that matches atleast a portion of the image of the object. The database search may beperformed by the media guidance application using an image search toolor technique to determine content and context for the object image. Theimage search tool may provide metadata about the object image. Suchmetadata may be searched by the media guidance application in a databaseto find content matching the object image. For example, an image ofperson 210 (FIG. 2) may be captured at step 1320, and the image will beanalyzed using an image search technique to detect, for example, thatthe image is of a person, that the person 210 may be recognized as beingone that is known by the user based on facial or image recognition toolsand a comparison of the user's contacts; in addition, the image searchmay detect that the person 210 is wearing shoes that are ones that havebeen purchased by the user, (based on a user's online shopping history),that the person 210 is wearing a T-shirt with a New England Patriotslogo, (which may be known to the media guidance application as being fora team that is the user's favorite, or nemesis), or other details aboutthe image.

At step 1330, in response to identifying content that matches at leastthe portion of the image of the object, the control circuitry 1004 forthe media guidance application will retrieve metadata associated withthe content to detect, on the object, a reference related to aparticipant in an event. Thus, at step 1330, the media guidanceapplication will use information about identifying matching content forthe image obtained at step 1325 to retrieve metadata about the matchingcontent. For example, if the media guidance application detects that aperson 210 (FIG. 2) is known to the user, e.g., using facial recognitiontools, the media guidance application may retrieve metadata about theperson or contact. In another example, if the media guidance applicationidentifies that the object image is a New England Patriots logo, themedia guidance application will retrieve metadata about the New EnglandPatriots, for example, event and participant information. Such metadataand information could be obtained from a sports database or anothersuitable database. In another example, the media guidance applicationcould identify that the object image includes apparel that is similar tosomething the user has previously purchased or liked on social media. Inthis example, the media guidance application may retrieve metadatarelating to a store sale, spokespersons, pop-up shops, retail drops, orother event or participant related to the content.

At step 1335, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may search a list of messages previously transmitted by thefirst user to a social network to identify a given message that includescontent matching the participant. In order to perform step 1335, themedia guidance application may access a user's social network to searchmessages, such as comments, tags, links, or other content that is postedby the user, or that is posted by another contact and associated with ortagged for the user, e.g., as shown in record 300 (FIG. 3). The socialmedia messages may be searched to find content that relates to theparticipant identified at step 1330. In an example, in response todetecting a New England Patriots logo on a T-shirt, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve metadata for the New England Patriots team andsearch the user's social network for messages about the team. In thisexample, the media guidance application may detect message 310 (FIG. 3)as being related to the New England Patriots, who played in the SuperBowl in February 2017. In another example, the media guidanceapplication may detect another message 302 (FIG. 3) as being related tothe New England Patriots because the team will be playing a match soonafter the message posting date.

At step 1340, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may identify a location on the object of the referencerelated to the participant by determining which region of the object inthe field of view includes the portion of the image that matches theidentified content. To perform step 1340, the media guidance applicationmay compare the context of the augmented reality view with the objectimage information to determine the location of the object within theview.

The control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance application may then,at step 1350, combine, using the augmented reality device, at a positionrelative to the identified location, the content of the given messagewith the reference detected on the object. Thus, the social mediamessage identified at step 1340 may be added to the view in theaugmented reality device at a location near the object at step 1350 toprovide a view such as those shown in FIGS. 4-6.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1400 forgenerating an option for a user to use an aspect depicted in anaugmented reality view in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. It should be noted that process 1400 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.10-11. For example, process 1400 may be executed by control circuitry1004 (FIG. 10) as instructed by a media guidance application implementedon a user device (e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106(FIG. 11)) to present an option to share added information in anaugmented reality environment. In addition, one or more steps of process1400 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 14 depicts a process 1400 that may be used to share an augmentedreality view. In particular, it may be used to share a portion of anaugmented reality view that includes information added to the view by amedia guidance application. Process 1400 may follow process 1300. Forexample, process 1400 may follow step 1350 of process 1300 where amessage and an object are combined and presented in an augmented realityenvironment. In another example, process 1400 may be used as astand-alone process using a picture obtained by other techniques.

Process 1400 begins at step 1410 where control circuitry 1004 for themedia guidance application may store a picture that represents a viewthrough the augmented reality device of the content of the given messagecombined with the reference detected on the object. The picture may becaptured by the media guidance application from a view in an augmentedreality device that includes a message as well as a reference objectusing camera circuitry. The picture may be a view, such as those shownin FIGS. 4-6, that includes an augmented reality view along with amessage that is based on content obtained from a user's social network.In some examples, the picture may be a portion of the view that includesthe message and the object. In other examples, the picture may be themessage combined with a portion of the reference object from the view.Other versions of the picture may include various combinations of themessage and object. The picture may be stored by the media guidanceapplication in a cache or database.

At step 1420, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may generate for display an option for the user to transmitthe picture to the social network. To perform step 1420, the mediaguidance application may use the picture stored previously to generate adisplay in the augmented reality environment that includes an option toshare the picture that was based on the enhanced view in the augmentedreality environment. An example of such an option is depicted in FIG. 7,e.g., window 720, which shows the T-shirt with logo from the person 705and includes an option 730 to post or send the image and message. Othertypes of interactions with the picture could also be provided in theoption for the user's use.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1500 forselecting a message to combine with an object in an augmented realityview in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should benoted that process 1500 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 10-11. For example,process 1500 may be executed by control circuitry 1004 (FIG. 10) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 1102, 1104, and/or 1106 (FIG. 11)) toselect a message to add to an augmented reality environment. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1500 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodimentdescribed herein.

FIG. 15 depicts a process 1500 for selecting a message to combine withan image in an augmented reality environment. Process 1500 may be usedto select a message, for example, the message at step 1335 (FIG. 13), toadd to an augmented reality view, or to select a message to add to aportion of an augmented reality view that has an object having somerelation to a message in a user's social network. In an example, a mediaguidance application may search a user's social network history, userprofile, Internet cache history, or other history to identify a messageor comment that the user has left and match it to an object in theaugmented reality view. Adding a social network message to a matchedobject in an augmented reality view may be interesting or relevant to auser because it is a comment or thought that the user has had in thepast, and is one that the user has felt to be compelling enough to sharewith the user's social network. In order to expedite matching a messageand images in an augmented reality environment, in some examples, amedia guidance application may build a database for a particular user,or a set of users, of images and image objects that may be associatedwith metadata and links that can help facilitate searching forsupplemental content to add to an augmented reality environment as wellas messages from a user's social network that may be related to theimages and image objects.

At step 1510, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay receive an image of an object captured within a view of an augmentedreality device. The image may be received from the augmented realitydevice using camera circuitry. In an example, the image may be a viewsuch as the augmented reality views from FIG. 1-2 or 4-7.

At step 1520, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay take the received image and store the image in a database inassociation with a plurality of entries that associate images withcontent. For example, images may be stored in a relational database thatincludes links and metadata for images. The image may be analyzed anddeconstructed into components or elements, and links and metadata foreach of the components or elements of the image may also be stored inthe database. For example, a media guidance application may store animage taken from an augmented reality device and parse the image forobjects that can be identified using image recognition or imageprocessing tools to detect and then define the elements in the image.

At step 1530, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay detect a plurality of distinct items in the image of the object. Thedistinct items may be detected using image processing tools that cannarrow in on elements in the image and match them with images in animage database. In some examples, the image processing may includecomparing pixels in the image to identify boundaries for objects thatcan be matched with objects in an image database.

At step 1540, the media guidance application may identify one of aplurality of entries that includes a given image that substantiallycorresponds to a given one of the distinct items. To perform step 1540,the media guidance application may search a media database, an imagedatabase or another database to find an entry for an image that issubstantially the same as some element or component of the receivedimage. The searching may be performed using image processing andrecognition tools so that the image elements can be compared with imagesin the database. The database may have metadata and links for imageitems in the database. For example, an image database may haveassociated source information, description data, titles, keywords orother metadata associated with the image to facilitate retrieving thecontent.

At step 1550, the media guidance application may retrieve content thatis associated with the given image that is matched from the database atstep 1540. The content may be obtained by, for example, accessingmetadata for the image and using link information to retrieve thecontent.

Metadata for the content may be analyzed at step 1560 by controlcircuitry 1004 for the media guidance application to determine whetherthe content is associated with an entity. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether content is connected to agroup, organization, team or another entity. The entity information maybe useful to obtain a message to include with the content that isrelevant to the entity. For example, if the media guidance applicationhas retrieved an image including a New England Patriots logo, matchingimages may be associated with content for football games, player news,team articles, team merchandise, NFL statistics, or other content. Themedia guidance application may detect that the content is associatedwith an entity—e.g., the New England Patriots, football, the NFL, oranother entity. If the media guidance application determines that thecontent is associated with an entity at step 1560, the media guidanceapplication may search for a message in the user's social network thatis associated with the entity at step 1565.

At step 1565, control circuitry 1004 for the media guidance applicationmay select a message based on the entity. The message may be selected bythe media guidance application from a user's social network history,such as record 300 (FIG. 3), or another user history or user profile.

If however, the media guidance application does not detect an entityassociated with the content, the media guidance application may continueprocess 1500 at step 1570 to determine whether the content is associatedwith a time. For example, the media guidance application may find anevents schedule for a matching image. For example, an image may be for acelebrity who may have a concert schedule, or be part of a movie havinga particular release schedule and showtimes at a theater, or be an NFLlogo for a team having a certain game schedule, etc. The eventinformation and associated time can be used as a basis for finding asuitable message from a user's social network to include in theaugmented reality environment. In some scenarios, step 1570 may also beperformed if the media guidance application cannot find a suitablemessage based on the entity at step 1565.

If a time-based element is determined at step 1570, the media guidanceapplication may select a message from a user's social network record,e.g., record 300 (FIG. 3) to find a message related to the time.

If no time-based element is found at step 1570 by the media guidanceapplication, the control circuitry 1004 for the media guidanceapplication may, at step 1580, not select a message using a timeelement. In such a scenario, the media guidance application may select amessage from a social network using another basis, such as keywordmatching based on metadata for the matching image, or some combinationof techniques described herein.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 10-11 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method comprising: detecting an object within afield of view of an augmented reality device of a user; based on theobject, querying a database to search for a social network messagerelated to the object; in response to identifying the social networkmessage related to the object: presenting an option to transmit a postto a social network, wherein the post comprises an image of the objectand text based on the identified social network message; and in responseto selection of the option, transmitting the post to the social network.53. The method of claim 52, wherein the social network message waspreviously transmitted to the social network of the user, and whereinthe social network message is obtained from social network history ofthe user.
 54. The method of claim 52, further comprising: determiningmetadata associated with the object based on image analysis of theobject; and parsing the social network message related to the object todetermine metadata associated with the social network message.
 55. Themethod of claim 54, further comprising: comparing the metadataassociated with the object to the metadata associated with the socialnetwork message to determine whether the social network message isrelated to the object.
 56. The method of claim 52, further comprising:identifying a list of social network messages related to the object; andselecting at least one social network message from the list based ontime information associated with one or more social network messagesincluded the list of social network messages.
 57. The method of claim52, further comprising: identifying a list of social network messagesrelated to the object; and selecting at least one social network messagefrom the list based on context information associated with one or moresocial network messages included the list of the social networkmessages.
 58. The method of claim 52, further comprising: using theaugmented reality device, overlaying the post over the field of view ofthe augmented reality device of the user.
 59. The method of claim 52,further comprises storing in the database the post with the field ofview of the augmented reality device of the user.
 60. The method ofclaim 52, further comprises presenting an option to share the post withanother user.
 61. The method of claim 52, wherein the object comprises alogo, a name, or a symbol of an entity.
 62. A system comprising: controlcircuitry configured to: detect an object within a field of view of anaugmented reality device of a user; based on the object, query adatabase to search for a social network message related to the object;in response to identifying the social network message related to theobject: present an option to transmit a post to a social network,wherein the post comprises an image of the object and text based on theidentified social network message; and in response to selection of theoption, transmit the post to the social network.
 63. The system of claim62, wherein the social network message was previously transmitted to thesocial network of the user, and wherein the social network message isobtained from social network history of the user.
 64. The system ofclaim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:determine metadata associated with the object based on image analysis ofthe object; and parse the social network message related to the objectto determine metadata associated with the social network message. 65.The system of claim 64, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: compare the metadata associated with the object to themetadata associated with the social network message to determine whetherthe social network message is related to the object.
 66. The system ofclaim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:identify a list of social network messages related to the object; andselect at least one social network message from the list based on timeinformation associated with one or more social network messages includedthe list of social network messages.
 67. The system of claim 62, whereinthe control circuitry is further configured to: identify a list ofsocial network messages related to the object; and select at least onesocial network message from the list based on context informationassociated with one or more social network messages included the list ofthe social network messages.
 68. The system of claim 62, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: overlay the post over thefield of view of the augmented reality device of the user.
 69. Thesystem of claim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto store in the database the post with the field of view of theaugmented reality device of the user.
 70. The system of claim 62,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to present an optionto share the post with another user.
 71. The system of claim 62, whereinthe object comprises a logo, a name, or a symbol of an entity.